Radioactive package under close scrutiny
01/08/02
By Joan Treadway
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
A package with radioactive material earmarked for industrial use arrived at Louis Armstrong International Airport emitting radiation levels at least five times higher than U.S. regulations allow, and state and federal agencies are investigating.
Authorities said Monday they are unsure how many people handled the package, which was mailed from Sweden and bound for Source Production and Equipment Co. Inc. of St. Rose, but said preliminary calculations indicate that those who did would have been exposed radiation levels similar to those in CAT scans, the computer-enhanced X-ray used to detect abnormalities in the human body.
It isn't clear when the package began emitting excess radiation, officials said. The package, containing a large amount of a radioactive isotope called iridium-192, was shipped Dec. 27 by the Swedish firm Studsvik via air freight to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and then by FedEx to Memphis, Tenn. It arrived in Louisiana by truck and was retrieved Wednesday at an air freight terminal by the St. Rose company, said Michael Henry, a senior environmental scientist at the state Department of Environmental Quality in Baton Rouge.
"We're trying to determine the root cause of the problem and to assess the dosage that might have been received by baggage handlers," he said.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission also is involved in the investigation.
Henry said the radiation coming from the package was "far in excess of allowable limits" in terms of roentgens, a basic unit of exposure to radiation. The package was sending out 1 roentgen per hour at a distance of 20 feet away, while the limit set for the surface of the package is 200 milliroentgens per hour, with 1 roentgen being equal to 1,000 milliroentgens, he said.
Authorities want to check their preliminary findings to be sure, though "I've never heard of a CAT causing problems," Henry said.
The material it contained, iridium-192, is sold to testing laboratories, which use it in radiography to check welded joints in structures ranging from oil pipelines to bridges, company President R.D. "Donny" Dicharry said.
Following normal company precautions, manager Tony Bustillo checked the package for radiation while still near the airport, Dicharry said. When Bustillo discovered the problem, he brought the package to St. Rose, where it was put into a safe container at the company's headquarters, and authorities were contacted, Dicharry said.
Dicharry said that although Bustillo received a higher-than-usual dose of radiation, it was still too low to cause him any harm.
In a news release Studsvik said the package was measured before it was shipped and it "displayed normal levels of radiation."
It was not among those selected for a U.S. Customs Service check, said Virginal Dabbs, a spokeswoman for the agency in New Orleans. The agency checks some but not all imported merchandise, she said, but the criteria it uses to make such decisions can't be publicized for security reasons.
State officials will meet in Louisiana this week with Studsvik executives on what to do next, Henry said.
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